Tracing the origins of Hakka and Chaoshanese by mitochondrial DNA analysis

Hakka and Chaoshanese are two unique Han populations residing in southern China but with northern Han (NH) cultural traditions and linguistic influences. Although most of historical records indicate that both populations migrated from northern China in the last two thousand years, no consensus on their ori- gins has been reached so far. To shed more light on the origins of Hakka and Chaoshanese, mitochondrial DNAs (mtDNAs) of 170 Hakka from Meizhou and 102 Chaosha- nese from Chaoshan area, Guangdong Province, were an- alyzed. Our results show that some southern Chinese predominant haplogroups, e.g. B, F, and M7, have rela- tively high frequencies in both populations. Although me- dian network analyses show that Hakka/Chaoshanese share some haplotypes with NH, interpopulation compar- ison reveals that both populations show closer affinity with southern Han (SH) populations than with NH. In consideration of previous results from nuclear gene (including Y chromosome) research, it is likely that matrilineal landscapes of both Hakka and Chaoshanese have largely been shaped by the local people during their migration southward and/or later colonization in south- ern China, and factors such as cultural assimilation, pat- rilocality, and even sex-bias in the immigrants might have played important roles during the process. Am J Phys Anthropol 141:124-130, 2010. V C 2009 Wiley-Liss, Inc.